Kenneka Jenkins Hotel Room Probed By Mom’s Lawyer, Investigator

The Crowne Plaza was blamed for a lack of urgency in immediately trying to find the teen.

A lawyer and investigator representing the mother of Kenneka Jenkins on Tuesday visited the suburban Chicago hotel room where the teenager was partying hours before being found dead in a walk-in freezer earlier this month, the Chicago Sun Times reported late Tuesday afternoon.

The fact that the attorney was also in attendance could mean that Jenkins’ mother, Tereasa Martin, was preparing to sue the Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare Hotel & Conference Center. Martin blamed both the hotel as well as local police for a lack of urgency after Jenkins was first reported missing in the early hours of September 9.

The Crowne Plaza said it would pay for Jenkins’ funeral and make available all of the surveillance footage from the hours surrounding the death, but Jenkins’ mother and legal team seemingly snubbed the gesture. “They have not responded at all to our offers,” hotel spokesperson Glenn Harston told the Sun Times.

The visit to the Crowne Plaza came one day after the Rosemont Police Department said it would investigate Jenkins’ death without the FBI, dealing a blow to Jenkins’ mother, who was looking for the federal agency to lead the probe because of distrust for local police.

Rosemont police on Friday released surveillance footage from the fateful night, showing an apparently intoxicated Jenkins staggering around the hotel before she ventured into a kitchen area, where the freezer was located. However, cameras never actually recorded her entering the freezer, prompting her mother to suspect foul play was involved.

Because of the immediate inaction by police and hotel, Jenkins’ mother was forced to go room-to-room knocking on each room’s door in an attempt to find her daughter. It took just about 24 hours for hotel staff to locate Jenkins inside the freezer. Had the hotel and authorities reacted quicker, Jenkins’ life might have been saved, Martin insisted.